Thursday, February 28, 2008

In response to demand:

So I hear that I have been neglecting my blog. Apparently there are a few addicts out there (especially my overdue pregnant sister who is stir-crazy) who are a bit antsy for their next fixes. Well, here is a sneak-peek at what has been keeping me away.

We have been remodeling our family room and utility room to make way for baby....and I say make way for baby because the nursery (and the rest of the house) is full of the furniture and items that have been displaced from the two rooms because we were too cheap to rent a POD. In retrospect, I so wish we had spent that $200, but who were we to know that this phase of the project would take nearly 1.5 months instead of a couple of weeks? Right....that would be common sense....remodels never go as planned.

Here are some pictures of the chaos as of a month ago....it has only gotten worse my friend....way worse. Add a lot more clutter and a lot more dust and dirt and you will get closer to the current state of affairs. Please bear with me as this is my first attempt at pictures on the blog.

The layout isn't quite working (have to check with the consultant later...you know, I hear he sleeps with his boss...), so the pictures are as follows:


1. Our guest room/office (there is a queen-size bed under all that stuff)

2. Our "living" room (though we haven't really been living in it lately)



3. Our family room (all the stuff is out of there and in the rest of the house right now)



4. The doorway of our future nursery (this is about as far as you can go into the room because there is so much stuff in it)

Thought you all might also like a peek at the colors of our "new" rooms. I will post pictures of the actual rooms on the blog later when things are together.

Paint:
Chamois is five down and two right.

Floor:
Cola is the color of our floor, though of course it is slightly different from the sample. More reddish I think.

Rug:
The rug looks like it is two different colors, but the difference is just in the pile height..alternating between a a low shag and berber-type. We are going to lay it down in the room tonight to make sure we like it and negotiate about size.

We really like how the colors are coming together and making such a warm-looking space. It's a bit echo-ey at the moment, but that should get better when we get stuff loaded into the rooms. Carpet and curtains can do a lot to absorb noise. We will use the white curtains from the front windows for the family room window. Right now, they get so dirty from the dogs poking their heads through to see out the front windows. We will then replace the front curtains with ones in a chocolate tone, and the white curtains shouldn't get as dirty in the family room since the window is not at dog-height.

The project is finally going well and we are set to start the floor sealing on Friday evening, since we cleaned last night and we are supposed to let things dry for two days before the first sealer goes down. We expect to finish painting on Saturday, do a couple coats of wax on Saturday evening, and start installing and filling the storage system on Sunday after church. We then expect to start moving the rest of the stuff in either late on Sunday or on Monday evening.

How exciting is that?!?

I just read back over stuff and found that I was writing "we expect" a lot. This has definitely been one of those projects that has not gone as expected. The plan has been changing ever since we pulled up the carpet in the first place, and even once we started actually working on the floor it has been nothing but hard work...especially for my long-suffering hubby.

It's been like Groundhog Day for him, but cement-style. He goes to work to get paid during the day, then comes home in the evening and on weekends to work on this crazy floor, goes to sleep for a few short hours, then wakes up and does it all over again. He has been a super-trooper and I love him so much and appreciate all that he has been sacrificing to take care of our family. He has been sacrificing two of the things that bring him a lot of joy -- writing and reading, so that we can get this all done before I pop (less than 5 weeks to go!). Each iota of adhesive that he scraped, ground, and sanded from our floor was a visible expression of his love for me. If only all women could be so blessed by their husbands.

Another really bright spot amidst the hard slog, is that some most excellent friends came up from Corvallis last Saturday and painted their hearts out. Mike, Lynn, and Jason did all the priming and painting on the walls and ceiling. All that's left is a little bit of touch-up after we finish with the first floor sealant. Mike and Lynn were such an encouragement and just really fun to work with. We wish that we lived closer so we could see more of them, but we always have such a great connection when we do get a chance to spend time together. They are awesome peeps. Wish I had pics of the day, but not much you can do after the fact...darn preg-brain strikes again!

OK, so this has become a super-mammoth post, but hopefully you all will enjoy the rich content...(that's all the rich I got cause we're spending all our money on the remodel....)

Cheers!

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